Transport vehicles with positive drives are known, for example, cog railways and in the mining industry. Positive drives have an advantage over friction drives in that the efficiency can be improved because the drive wheel in the case of a positive connection cannot slip on the drive rail. In addition, greater torques and thus greater acceleration can be transferred from the drive to the rail.
These drives have already been proposed for use in roller coasters, too. However, there is the problem that the rack limits the possibilities for the realization of certain routes. As amusement rides are intended to thrill users by traversing the most spectacular possible thrill elements, a complicated route with more or less steep rises (e.g., camel back), curves, twists (e.g., screw), and also combinations of these (e.g., cork screw), must be realized in many cases. However, since the racks, as well as the guide elements (rails), are not freely bendable and twistable, there is limited scope for designing the circuit.
EP 2483121 A1 discloses the attaching of a rack between the pipes arranged one above the other of a monorail or at one of the pipes of a monorail. However, difficulties arise when conventional components and methods are used for attaching an engagement member for the gear wheel of the drive of the vehicle to a rail, especially in the case of curved and complex track routes with twisting of the track.